***On Twitter @OfficialRVGA and on YouTube @ http://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialRVGA*** Welcome to the Retro Video Game Addict's Official blog page! Here you will be able to tap into the mind of a man who knows, loves, and enjoys his retro/classic video games. Everything from the Atari 2600 to the Nintendo 64 is covered here, so strap yourself in for a fun ride down memory lane, and don't say that you weren't warned before hand. Please, enjoy your stay and keep your kids off my lawn.

Friday, June 21, 2013

I just wanted to take a
minute to discuss a comic book that I've become quite passionate
about in the short amount of time it's been in publication. The comic
book in question here is called The Black Bat and it's published by a
company called Dynamite Entertainment. If you're not familiar with
them I suggest you check out an earlier blog post of mine where I
discussed Dynamite and their amazing line of comic books based on
classic pulp heroes of the 30's and 40's in depth. It's an
interesting read and a nice introduction to the modern pulp genre. A
genre I am un-officially dubbing “PulpX”. If you follow either
Dynamite Entertainment or myself on Twitter than you'll know that I
coined that phrase recently and it was re-tweeted and adopted by
Dynamite to describe their line of pulp hero books specifically, this
being aside from their other styles of pulp they publish. This was a
real highlight for me and I'm truly honored to be a part of it. But
enough about PulpX for now as I want to spend some time discussing
this amazing series at hand.

The Black Bat is only
on it's second issue as of this writing, but it's 2 published issues
have lead me to absolutely fall in love with the character portrayed
in this title as well as the surroundings and atmosphere this book
gives off. It's writer, the very talented Brian Buccellato, has truly
crafted a tale that is both refreshing and engaging with a main
character so rife with life's hardships that it's a miracle he hasn't
jumped off a bridge. Well, come to think about it he actually tried
in issue #2, but that's besides the point. The point is that the hero
of the story is at a severe disadvantage thanks to being blind and
struggled to adapt to the society around him, but yet still finds a
way to take out the criminals who litter his city. It's really neat.
But what's even more neat is that he has solar-like vision that
allows him to see in the dark, which is when most criminals tend to
strike anyway so it works out in the end.

On top of the amazing
writing by Mr. Buccellato, the book features really nice interior art
by an artist named Ronan Cliquet, who's work I actually didn't like a
whole lot when he was penciling Green Hornet: Legacy for Dynamite
prior to the “Legacy” branding. Ronan's style has been refined
and he's pumping out some high quality artwork in The Black Bat, the
dark settings and character visuals tend to work better for him more
so than the colorful outfit of The Green Hornet and the daytime
scenery in which he was working with before. All in all Cliquet's art
is much improved and he gets a tip of the cap from me for his efforts
in this comic, it's pretty crisp stuff and really worth checking out
if you're into interior artwork like I am.

The first issue was
great. You get to see the city that the Black Bat protects from his
POV while he takes on thugs and puts the word out that he's looking
for a criminal known as The Brute, but while all this is going on
you're taken back in time to see how he got his sonar vision as well
as other personal traits that brought him to the current day. In the
second issue we get even more current day story mixed with personal
issues that took place previously that are masterfully woven together
to make a thrilling and someone touching tale that brings you closer
to the man behind the mask more so than the vigilante himself.
Perfecto! This is storytelling stripped down to it's very core and
layered with seasoning to bring forth a compelling tale of a classic
hero who has been re-imagined in a new era.

For those who don't
know who The Black Bat is, well, there has actually been a couple
pulp based characters known as The Black Bat. This particular
incarnation came out right around the time that Batman did in the
late 30's and both the publishers of the pulp novels and the creators
of Batman spent some time bickering with each other until both
characters changed up their look a bit, which in the end pleased all
parties involved. To be honest though, the original Black Bat
pre-dated Batman by several years and even though this incarnation is
based on what I believe to be the 3rd version of the Black
Bat I still think that he was created shortly before Bob Kane created
the legendary “Dark Knight”. With that said, it does piss me off
a little when I see some uneducated forum member online come into a
thread pertaining to not only The Black Bat, but other pulp heroes
too, and refer to them as rip-offs of current popular DC and Marvel
characters. Some people just aren't hip to the fact that these pulp
heroes predated them all. Damn shame, really. But for every fan who
writes this series off as “Batman with guns” there is a fan who
knows the true history of the character and realizes that this book
stands on its own as being something quite special.

I seriously can't
comment enough about how much I love The Black Bat and I really hope
that those who are reading this blog entry who enjoy comic books will
give this one a shot. Trust me on this, it's damn good and you have a
chance to hop on something fresh while it's still in it's infancy.
It's one of those situations where you'll thank me later for
suggesting it and I fully believe that based off of this one title
you'll soon be investing in the rest of Dynamite's PulpX books. What
do you have to lose? $4? You can dig that up out of your couch
cushions and from underneath all the 2 month old pizza boxes you've
got scattered throughout you're studio apartment, so go
ahead.....purchase, read, and enjoy. Catch you on the flip side!

On a side note: Since I hit
Twitter this past week and coined the phrase “PulpX” it's really
been taking off among the community of fans who read the Dynamite
pulp heroes line of comics. But what does PulpX really mean? Well, to
be honest, I don't really know. Whenever I read something that ends
in an “X” like how kids/teens of the 90's were dubbed “Generation
X”, or how they ad an X to the end of things to signify it being
new or the next step in the evolution of a product it's always sort
of resonated with me. So picture it like that. This new wave of pulp
comics by Dynamite Entertainment is very much a new revolution for
the genre, and with pulp now on the mind of comic book fans around
the world I figured adding an X to the name would really give it a
cool spark, and so far it has. So there you have it!